Bill Nelson

For the last 10-plus years, Mosaic has hired Stamford's chronic junior high school JDs to scribble the serial #s into their booklets while working off their hours of after-school detention. Always a charming touch of the local 'street'.

Overall, the clips portend a precious, delicate state of affairs. It sure isn't the organic mind meld of Metheny and Mays. I might wait for a cheap promo.

Returning to the original thread topic, which got 5 replies prior to Concord's Summer Blow-Out (which should've been a separate topic thread) -- here's two titles I got last summer which don't appear anywhere now: Lyle 'Spud' Murphy - 'Gone With the Woodwinds' (OJCCD-1905-2) The Trio - s/t, with Walter Norris, Hal Gaylor, and Billy Bean (OJCCD-1923-2) RE the above item, if you enter 'Hal Gaylor' on Amazon, it turns up 3 new copies for $14.99 ea.

I think she was the same broad. As A&M executives might've said about the disappointing sales for Glasscock,"Both albums stiffed and were DEAD IN THE WATER."

Didn't murder suspect, I mean wife, 'Jewel' record two albums for A&M in 1974 as Joanne Glasscock?

The mind still reels at how the NY Times would pay Mr. Chinen to supply us with so many laughs. He was probably listening to the latest from Fourplay while composing his tepid analysis of Coryell's 'Free Spirits'. Ben Ratliff watch out -- Nate Chinen will soon be eating your lunch!

Yeah, and for years the bass player for Burton was Floyd Soileau. When Ritenour joined, Floyd gave Burton his notice and returned to Louisiana. Soileau does occasional cajun gigs with Carl & the Bleyboys.

In today's NY Times, Nate Chinen's Playlist includes the first-ever CD reissue of the seminal 1967 fusion LP by The Free Spirits. Mr. Chinen provides a mini-review of this "psychedelic rock album made by post-Coltrane youngbloods under corporate supervision". (ABC Records' Bob Thiele with Rudy Van Gelder). "The band's chief creative force was the guitarist Larry Carlton, who wrote all the songs on the album, though not all of its celestial, acid-warped lyrics. Chinen continues,"Mr. Carlton and the drummer Bob Moses would later play in the Gary Burton Quartet, a more celebrated prototype of jazz-rock led by the vibraphonist Gary Burton, but here they're digging in with Chip Baker on lead vocals, Chris Hills on bass and Jim Pepper on tenor saxophone." I suppose Mr Chinen might add,"When Carlton left, the guitar chair was eventually taken by 21-year-old Pat Martino, of the Berklee School of Music. Pat Martino would soon meet keyboardist Lyle Mays and form his highly successful Pat Martino Group, which still records and tours to this day." (We know who got Martino's spot in Burton's group -- Lee Ritenour.)

It's probably too late to make a back-up copy of your ex-wife, titled "The Romantic Years". None of my damn business, but still... My Mosaics will always be at home, waiting patiently for me. (Hot supper, high heels, and baby doll gown sold separately.)

The JJ's seem to be moving at a clip of about one copy per day -- not quite 'hotcakes'. I hear the voices of my old buddys, my minty 6-eye stereo LPs fearful of being abandoned. They're saying,"Put the gun down, Bill. Don't pull that trigger!" Vacillate. Salivate. Vacillate. Maybe in another week, it'll be too late and the shouting will be over. The looming image of 'The Procrastinator' will be a relief.

Heck, two YEARS ago, you guys were writing how it'd be the next one to expire. If this keeps up, Mosiac's gonna have to move it from 'Last Chance' to 'Running Low'.

You need to describe the condition of the jackets. (There's two essential 'points' guys look for.)

For those sports fans keeping score: the Mildred easily beat J.J. -- selling out on April 13. It now looks like J.J. Johnson might be running neck-and-neck with the Four Freshmen. Will the J.J. get to #5,000 before its 10th Anniversary? Or, are the trigger-happy boys aiming for the Frosh set? Make a statement -- your vote counts. Pull that trigger early and often! Let's get it done.

You're unloading Mosaics of 50's jazz, right? Maybe it's just a 'mood thing'. However -- --you might avoid being alone at night while 'cleaning' the old man's gun collection.

Despite Mosaic's 'running low' clarion call, my index fingers won't be dialing these up. As Peter Cook dryly intoned in 'Bedazzled' -- "You fill me with inertia." My vinyl slabs of the Frosh and Millie have got it covered.

Now that you've raised the $18 to meet this month's house payment nut -- -- can I assume your mortgage?

Manson couldn't get in 'cause, like most lousy singers, he came in late and lost the key.

'Dizzy On the French Riviera' was recommended to me in '69 by the cat holding the Friday nite jazz show on WRIU-FM (Univ. of Rhode Island). 'Boston' Al Samiljan -- wherever you are -- thanks for hipping me: "Kid, this is the best all-round jazz album, in my opinion." (I was 16, a high school volunteer.) After 'Boston Al' the reigning Friday jazz DJ was John Zoglio, who began each show with Bunky Green's version of 'Hoe Down'. In '71 I finally got the coveted slot and gave 'Riviera' many an on-air spin. Who knows, we might've moved a couple units in sales at Beacon Records or Carl's Diggins House of Jazz, both in Providence and one block apart. Yes, the CD came and went real fast in '88 or '89, a Polydor West German (Hanover) pressing, I think.

Bob Shad always looked like he was having a bad day -- sorta like a Joe Paterno running the studio and pissed about being over budget. Bob Thiele's mug and cig were ubiquitous inside too many Impulse gatefold liners. Creed Taylor is more amazing for NOT getting 'face time' on his multi-hundred LPs. (There's just a couple pics of him on his early ABC/Paramount productions.)

If you MUST ask about Nelson on Impulse -- follow these directions: Take one copy of 'Blues and the Abstract Truth' aurally at night. If dizzyness persists, then call your doctor in the morning.

Just 6 months ago, Alldirect.com was charging $8.65 per OJC disc. So, their prices have gone DOWN to $7.99 but there are many titles they're out of. (George Wallington's 'NY Scene' is perpetually 'out of stock'.) Gotta pull that trigger real quick when you find a bunch.

Glad you enjoy your 78s on Tops. Their LPs came in thin jackets with no liner notes or inner sleeve. Tops spared EVERY expense possible when it came to the consumer. Only a collector with a warped sense of humor would say to a visitor,"Let me show you all my albums on the Tops label!"

And that's how these early Stan Getz sides were able to penetrate grocery stores and gas stations in Anytown, USA. One may contemplate the potential 'musical corruption' of innocent buyers via these 47-cent slabs!

Budget Label Adds To M. Goldberg's list: Baronet - reissued Roost 78 rpm material, see: Stan Getz 'Pair of Kings', Baronet 102 Halo Jazztone MGM budget label family: Lion, Metro, Metrojazz Tops (really the 'bottom' of budget labels) In an earlier post, I inaccurately painted this genre as having been manufactured expressly for "99-cent bins". Well, many of these were stock catalog items at $1.98 list (Camden, Harmony, Richmond) and would be ordered by record shops and placed in bins titled 'Special Price'. Sometimes the budget label stock would get shuffled in with LP cut-outs -- a drag for us record-hunt fiends. The TRULY low budget labels (Coronet, Diplomat, Spin-o-rama, et al) would arrive as a mixed assortment to the grocery and drug stores -- and gas stations (a surprisingly potent point-of-purchase). I've had the dubious pleasure of seeing many LP collections which consist entirely of these lowest-tier labels, otherwise known as 'Hitting the Skids'.

And then there's the irony in the nomenclature of these el cheapo labels: the more regal and exalted -- such as Crown, Palace, and Premier -- the more wretched the pressing. I'd throw Syd Nathan's King into the equation but, as we know, Syd was just a frugal bastid' who "liked to make a beautiful dollar."